Just to Feel
by Eliza Darling
Summary: Slightly AU. He wasn't there when she woke. There was no spark between her and the man that stood before her, but she kissed him anyway, just to feel. Jack/Aki. Rated T for mentions of sexual content.


**AN: Maggie again! Moar Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's stuff... :O I have no life. I actually looked into the different, weirder couples, and Jack/Aki came up. I think it could work. :D**

**Warnings: Slightly AU, mentions of sex.**

He sat there.

For two days he ate, slept, and watched her. To see if she was okay. To make sure someone was there when she woke up.

Because he was worried about her. Because he _cared_ about her.

It wasn't like he had anything better to do. He had sent the twins home because it was getting late. He was no longer famous; his former friend had taken the title away from him. He had no home. He had left the girl he loved because he didn't want to be in a relationship, and now she was gone.

Gone. He hated that word. He'd _always_ hated that word. Everything he'd known always had to be gone. He retrieved her glasses from his pocket.

His parents were gone.

His hope was gone.

His friends were gone.

His title was gone.

His home was gone.

His dignity was gone.

His love was gone.

Everything.

Gone.

Boy, did he hate that word.

The girl he was watching's heart rate sped up. Another bad memory, he concluded. She had been moaning and talking in her sleep during the duration of his time with her. It was always something different. But he'd learned to ignore it, along with that Godforsaken beeping noise from the monitor, and often read to pass the time.

This was different, though. She was moaning a _name_.

A name he knew all too well.

She knew her physical body was still. But she was there, running, playing hopscotch, dueling. It was her stupid powers at work again.

The last thing she remembered actually _doing_ was dueling Misty.

A dark surge poured through her veins, remembering she was a Signer dueling a Dark Signer.

She saw Divine plummet to his ultimate doom and everything went black.

Now it was like she was reliving her life in its most important times.

The day her own _father_ had called her a monster.

Sure, she was only a small child, but she knew what the word meant. Horrible. Gruesome. Disgusting.

That was the day her heart broke.

Duel Academia.

She had hurt so many… yet felt more pain inside than they ever could.

What did _they_ know? They weren't cursed like she was. They didn't have powers like hers.

The day she came home.

Her parents looked so happy _without_ her. They didn't care. They were glad she was gone.

_They_ were the monsters.

_They_ deserved to suffer the pain she went through.

They didn't love her. Never had, never would.

She was selfish when she shattered that glass.

She hated loving the exhilarating feeling that _she_ had hurt her parents.

She ran away and found love.

But that was temporary.

Because now he was gone.

The one person that ever truly understood her was _never_ coming back.

That was before she met _him_.

He didn't care she had powers.

He treated her like a _person_.

Not as a monster. Not as something more that no one would understand.

An honest to God, _normal_ person.

She craved for normalcy, wanted it all her life. She wanted just _one_ person to see her and not shun her, or treat her like a prize to be won.

It was the one time she accepted herself.

She felt a presence above her, observing her, but she didn't know whom. Maybe it was him.

Only one way to find out.

She opened her eyes to the light.

Jack Atlas hovered above Aki Izayoi. How he had gotten there, he didn't know. Something about the way she _writhed_ drew him toward her sleeping body. Her long, red bangs fell on her beautiful, porcelain face. Yes, he was _sure_ she was beautiful. But she loved another. As did he.

She had the beauty of a red rose. Physically, she was the petals. Body like a seductress, hazel-gold eyes filled with lust and wanting, and fine hair with the texture of silk.

Inside, she was the thorns, pricking everyone she knew and loved.

Now, she was practically screaming the name, causing Jack to sweat. This was so wrong. They were both bound to another, and liking the woman that squirmed underneath him, so pure, so _vulnerable_—it wouldn't be right. He loved Carly. He _loved_ Carly. Jack brushed the red bangs out of her smooth face.

Aki moaned again, saying the name softly. _"Yu… sei…"_

Then she opened her eyes.

The hand remained on her cheek. She knew who it was already. She couldn't believe he had waited for her. She grasped the hand softly, and slowly opened her eyes…

To see a very widened pair of violet eyes staring down at her.

She was disappointed and angry. She expected him to _wait_, if he ever wanted her to feel any better. And here, the welcoming committee was the former King? She dropped her hands.

"Why are _you_ here?" she demanded, ripping off those stupid suction things on her head. The monitor gave one long, monotonous beep.

"How about, _'Thanks for saving my life, Jack?'_ 'Thanks for watching my every move for two days, _Jack_?'" he replied coldly.

Aki was downcast. Could she do _anything_ right?

She looked up at his handsome face. "I'm sorry," she replied just as coldly, but blushing. "I just thought—"

"You thought Yusei would be here?" he finished for her.

"Yes." She blushed more.

"Well, I've got news for you, Princess—"

Before Aki could lash out at Jack for calling her a "_Princess"_, the door burst open. "Izayoi!" cried the doctor. "You're awake! We thought—"

"I had died?"

"Well, when we can't get any readings, we assume that is the case."

"I'm fine," said Aki with a cold indifference.

"Yes. We can see that." The nurse unplugged the monitor.

"May we have a moment?" asked Jack. "Complete privacy? Including the curtains closed and that security camera unplugged?"

_What? Why?_ Thought Aki.

"Mr. Atlas," the doctor explained, "it is required that we keep—"

Jack shot him a death glare as a warning.

"Y-yes sir." The doctor bowed and left the room with the nurse.

"Why did you do that?" asked Aki.

Jack took off his white leather coat and pulled a chair up to her bed. "I have something I need to tell you," he said. "Yusei is in Satellite right now."

He was nowhere _near_ where she was. "But… I don't understand. He was in danger; I remember the Sign throbbing—"

"He had a duel," Jack explained, "with a Dark Signer. He fell off his bike, and we took him to our caretaker's house. That's where he is."

Her eyes widened. " A Dark Signer?" she asked.

"I know you did, too," Jack continued. "That's why you had your duel disk on when the building was collapsing."

"The Arcadia Movement…" she whispered, remembering Divine.

Jack took her hand in his. "Aki. You have to tell me what you saw that night."

She closed her eyes, picturing everything she remembered.

"A girl," Aki started. "A girl in an orange vest, black hair, and striped shirt."

Jack's voice was eager. "Yes? What about this girl? I have to know!"

"She… she was falling… fro the top floor of the building. She was screaming… screaming _your_ name."

The girl's voice rang inside Aki's head. So desperate. So scared.

"_Save me, Jack!"_

"Carly…" Jack's face paled as he whispered the name.

"But somehow," continued Aki, "she survived the fall. There was an indent on the ground, but no one was there. Somehow… she's still alive."

"Thank God." She noticed Jack was clutching a pair of broken glasses.

So that girl was someone dear to him. Someone he held close to his heart.

"And then… I saw the Dark Signer."

"Who was it?" asked Jack, almost forgetting the girl… Carly.

"You'd never believe it, but it was Misty Lola."

"Misty Lola? The _model_?"

"Yes. She blamed me. She thought I had _killed_ her brother. But I know I didn't. I've never met him."

"So you dueled her and then…"

"The building was coming down, so there was no outcome. I blacked out after that."

"You've been in a coma for two days," said Jack.

"And you stayed? Why?"

He shrugged. "I had nothing better to do. And I needed to make sure you were okay."

Under the rugged-but-handsome exterior he was sweet. She knew she shouldn't think that way. She wanted another, as did he. But was it so _wrong_ to admire from afar?

"Thank you, Jack. For everything," she said. She brought her hand to his face and pecked him on the lips quickly.

There was silence. Her hand lingered on his face; thumb feeling the smooth curve of his cheekbone.

Then, out of the blue, he kissed her.

She waited for the spark. The fireworks. The sure sign that he was the one.

Nothing.

He smelled like cologne and musk, and tasted like blueberries, if you could believe it. But there was nothing. They were wrong for each other, they knew, but the kiss kept going.

Suddenly, Jack pulled away, wanting to breathe. "Anything?" he asked between pants.

Aki shook her head. "No spark, no fireworks. We're clearly wrong for each other."

They kissed again.

No. _No!_ They shouldn't be doing this. _Why_ were they kissing? They weren't supposed to _hate_ each other, but here they were, Jack straddling Aki's curvy body. They couldn't!

Each of his kisses became more passionate, struggling to feel that spark, those fireworks. But the harder he tried, the chance of finding something from the other grew less. And still, they kissed, just to feel.

He loved Carly, heart and soul. This? This was a fling. He didn't love her, and she didn't love him.

Carly was gone.

This was for the security that he was still sane, that he was still part of this world. He did it to _feel_.

His hands roamed down her hourglass torso, thumbs kneading her hips. She wrapped her slender arms around his muscular neck and ran her hands through his spiky blonde hair. Damn, it felt so good. But so _wrong_.

They parted only for air. During these moments, they would look at each other, reading the other's face, knowing it was unethical.

Then they'd continue their previous activities, Jack's lips crushing Aki's.

She never minded. Aki didn't care Jack was a rough kisser with her. With Carly, however, Jack wanted to give her sweet, tender kisses. Aki almost _begged_ him to go further, for reasons Jack didn't know. Still, he silently agreed, running his tongue along her bottom lip and tasting the inside of her mouth.

_Cinnamon_.

Though he dominated the kiss, he could tell Aki was a fighter. She _wanted_ him to be rough because she could _handle_ it. Kiss after kiss, she pulled Jack in so deep he could probably almost touch the back of her throat.

But he wouldn't advance past French kissing. He decided he could mentally undress her, get a taste of that sexy body underneath in his head. Because he wanted Carly more, even is she _was_ gone, and he was doing this with Aki. It wasn't as if he and Carly were official, anyways. It was okay to be doing this, as long as Carly or Yusei never found out about it.

Jack thought this was wrong before. Now, he wanted to keep kissing Aki. He wanted—no, _needed_—to feel again.

His kisses were so passionate and sexy it made Aki almost forget about Yusei.

Key word here is _almost_.

There was that nagging thought at the back of her head that told her it was all wrong. Her mind knew it, but her body was aching for more of his touch. She needed him now, needed him because she needed to _feel_. She had to have some sort of connection to the physical world. She just woke up from a coma, for crying out loud! If kissing Jack were the only way to tell herself she was there, then so be it.

Her hands moved from the back of his neck, down the cotton material of his black tank, and under it, feeling the washboard abs beneath.

Yes, she was there. She was _palpable_. She could _feel_. They parted for air again.

"This is so wrong," she said quietly, cupping hi face in her hands, "what we're doing… but my body is just begging for more, for all of this. Because… I need to _feel_ again. I need to know I'm still here, if that makes any sense."

Jack wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into an intimate hug. "Trust me," he whispered, his lips barely brushing her ear. "It makes perfect sense. I need to feel again, too."

Her eyes widened. They were both on the same page, had the same goal. She wondered, was he so desperate as to…? She blushed at the thought.

Aki pressed her lips to Jack's again, hands running down his body. She tugged at the waistband of his jeans.

He pulled away, a shocked and confused expression on his face. "Aki…" he started.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" she interrupted.

This was to test him. If he said no, she would accept the answer, knowing he _truly_ loved someone else, as she probably did as well. In fact, she _hoped_ he would say no.

However, if he said _yes_, she would still go along with it as well. He _didn't_ love this girl, this Carly, as much as she thought he did, and Aki would get the ultimate feeling of just _being_ there.

But there was one problem: Aki's complex outfit. In order to complete option number two, Jack would have to undo her corset, pull open her dress, and pull down her skin-tight black romper to her knees, whereas all he had to do was undo his belt and jeans. Guys _always_ had it easy.

Jack took her hand, the one that settled on his waistband, and intertwined their fingers. "Of course I am," he replied, his eyes full of lust.

The question threw him off. Jack couldn't believe Aki was offering herself to him. To think, if he said yes, she would be screaming his name, branding herself his. He felt another surge of pleasure coarse through his body at the mere thought.

But what about Carly?

He saw her in his mind, crying and bawling because he cheated on her. Her fragile body was hunched over. So tiny. So broken.

"You broke my heart, Jack," she whispered, tears streaming from her beautiful, clouded, big eyes.

No. Aki and Jack would not work out. They didn't know much about each other and they both loved someone else.

"I… I can't, Aki." He rolled off her lithe body and lay beside her, his stomach to her back.

Aki rolled over and pulled him in for another kiss. Yet, unlike all the other ones, it was sweet, not passionate and full of lust.

"Thank you, Jack," she whispered.

They said no more. Aki rested her head at the crook of Jack's neck and he smelled her rose-scented hair. They lay like that for some time, hugging each other, breathing the other in.

"I can feel again." Her voice was almost inaudible, but he could hear her.

He kissed her, but only for a second. "So can I," he whispered at the same volume.

They never told anyone about that day for as long as they lived.

End.

**Any thoughts? I'd love to hear them! :D**


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